'Jacks Earn First-Place Consideration In Preseason Poll
11/4/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 4, 2009
FRISCO, Texas - For the second time in as many years, the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjack basketball team is projected by at least one preseason poll to finish atop the Southland Conference East Division. The league office announced coaches and sports information directors polls for the 2009-10 season on Wednesday, and the Lumberjacks lead the coaches poll and are tied for second in the SID poll.
SFA received 58 points and five first-place votes in the coaches poll, finishing two points above second-place Nicholls. The Colonels racked up an identical number of points and first-place votes in SID polling to leave the 'Jacks tied with Southeastern Louisiana for the No. 2 slot with 54 points apiece. The Lions took four first-place votes in the sports information poll, with SFA receiving three.
Last year, the Lumberjacks were picked to win the Southland East after a 2007-08 campaign that saw them capture a share of the program's first Southland Conference championship. SFA returned four starters from that championship team and went on to prove the preseason pollsters right, posting a 13-3 record in league play to take a second straight conference title.
This season, SFA returns just two starters and six lettermen in all, but is still expected to contend in the East.
Behind SFA and Nicholls, the coaches voted Southeastern Louisiana third, Northwestern State fourth, McNeese State fifth and Central Arkansas sixth. The bottom half of the SID poll has McNeese fourth, Northwestern fifth and Central Arkansas sixth.
In West Division polling, Sam Houston State is predicted to win by both head coaches and sports information directors. The Bearkats received 61 points and seven first-place votes among coaches and 58 points and five first-place nods from the SIDs.
SFA will kick off the 2009-10 season Monday, Nov. 9, with an exhibition game against Northwest Oklahoma State at 7 p.m. The regular season begins the following week with a road game against Minnesota.
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